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The full title of Adam Rockoff's investigation into horror history is: *Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978-1986*, yet this isn't entirely accurate. Rockoff's manuscript goes well past the mid-80's, touching on the 90's revival of the slasher genre with entries on the likes of *Scream*, *I Know What You Did Last Summer*, and *Urban Legend*, along with their sequels. But you know what? I'm not going to hold an inaccurate subtitle against him. How could I, when I had so much fun reading this investigation into the history of such a beloved sub-genre of Horror cinema?
## What *Is* A Slasher Film, Anyway?
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Rockoff's first chapter is, honestly, the most important of the book, for it sets the stage and explains the 'hows' and 'whys' that differentiate a "Slasher" from any other type of horror experience. This is important because, while many types of movies (especially Italian *giallo* productions) may incorporate some elements of the Slasher, this no more makes them *Slasher Films* than the incorporation of a supernatural/paranormal entity makes a movie "Horror". *Twilight*, despite incorporating both vampires and werewolves into its narrative, is only a horror film if you get dragged into watching it against your will.
Slashers, according to Rockoff, are born of their own particular mixture of specific elements: a specific killer, setting, weapon of choice, Final Girl, a camera which follows the subjective point of view of the killer, a prologue which establishes some past precedent for the present-day carnage, and a director with an unwavering desire to linger on the carnage. It isn't necessarily important for *every* element listed to appear in the film, and there are many examples of movies which subvert story and audience expectations on one or more points, but the more of them which appear, the more likely you are to have veered into Slasher territory.
As you may have guessed from the cover, John Carpenter's 1978 masterpiece *Halloween* is Rockoff's choice as the Ur-Slasher. That isn't to say there weren't movies going back years or decades earlier that fit the mold, including Tobe Hooper's *The Texas Chain Saw Massacre* from 1974, but while Gunnar Hansen embodies all the necessary traits of the 'slasher villain' in his portrayal of Leatherface, *Halloween* is the modern-day trope codifier. Before *Halloween*, the horror film itself was in something of a slump, with producers uninterested in financing them and distributors uninterested in getting them into theaters. Outside of the grindhouse or art house circuit, there was no money in horror films. Even well-known studios like Hammer and Amicus found themselves cast adrift as the tides of the time turned them from projectionists' darlings to *personae non grata* of the cinema.
*Halloween* changed all that overnight. As one of the most successful independent films of all time, *Halloween* demonstrated that not only were audiences interested in seeing pictures where people were butchered *en masse*, but they were willing to pay considerable sums of money to do so. In the 90's, video game publishers threw money at anything which hinted it might be the next *Wolfenstein 3D*, *Doom*, or *Quake*. In the 70's and 80's, movie studios threw money at any project they could deem the next *Halloween*, *Friday the 13th*, or *Nightmare on Elm Street*.
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Rockoff goes beyond the typical video movie guide with *Gone to Pieces*. This is not a book like [*The Official Splatter Movie Guide*](https://steemit.com/books/@modernzorker/horror-review-the-official-splatter-movie-guide-by-john-mccarty-1989-st-martin-s-press) or [*Psychotronic Video Guide*](https://steemit.com/film/@modernzorker/horror-review-the-psychotronic-video-guide-by-michael-j-weldon-1996-st-martin-s), which offer up basic information like release dates, actors, and director info along with a capsulized review. Rockoff's chapters are deep dives into specific time periods and specific films produced and released within those time periods, starting with the Grand Guignol period of French theater and moving up to the "they're talking about doing a 'Jason in Space' movie" in his final chapter.
In between, we're treated not just to spoiler-laden summaries of the pictures in question, but also behind-the-scenes looks at their development, bolstered by direct quotations from the directors, producers, actors, and special effects people. These are delivered in an entertaining, conversational style by Rockoff, who clearly loves the subject matter and relishes the chance to tell us all about it. If you're expecting the dry, academic tone of *Men, Women, and Chain Saws*, I'm happy to report you'll find none of it here. That isn't to dismiss the important purpose served by the Carol J. Clovers of the world -- Rockoff, in fact, often refers to academic critics and their criticism in his chapters -- but Rockoff's more interested in an external anatomy lesson as opposed to a full-fledged dissection of his subject matter. And let's face it: it's a lot more fun to admire the human form of a model in art class than it is to dig through the innards of a corpse on the autopsy table (even if the subject matter of *Gone to Pieces* may make it seem otherwise).
There are also copious black-and-white photos throughout, mostly taken from press kits and other advertising materials, which Rockoff uses to illustrate particular scenes, characters, and movies. These are high quality, often taking up half the page or more, and tend to focus on the dramatic as opposed to the staid, such as this one showing Final Girl Chris taking a swing at Jason in *Friday the 13th, Part 3*:
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I'd dearly love to say there's nothing wrong with *Gone to Pieces* but, alas, I can't. For as much as Adam Rockoff knows his stuff, there are far too many mistakes in the text for me to offer up a perfect score.
Many of the mistakes are of the grammar and/or punctuation variety, and whoever edited this should be sat in front of [*The House on the Edge of the Park*](https://steemit.com/film/@modernzorker/michael-s-sleaze-lase-o-rama-the-house-on-the-edge-of-the-park-1999-ec-entertainement) with his eyelids glued open in penance.
But in too many cases, the mistakes are Rockoff's alone, and while I can overlook the occasional mis-step and inaccuracy, there are some *extremely* basic mistakes that even a rank novice fan of horror films from this era would not be making. Confusing William Hurt for John Hurt, or claiming the titular creature from *Alien* was a combination of H.R. Giger and H.P. Lovecraft when, in actuality, it was *all* Giger's designs, are just two of the "Are you kidding me?" moments I stumbled across while reading, but the one that really stuck in my craw came in the final chapter, where Rockoff writes of *Scream*:
> After their high school principal, Mr. Himbry (Henry Winkler), is burtally murdered in school, the apparently unfazed teens decide to throw a huge party at Stu's (Matthew Lillard).
The party in question may occur after Himbry's murder, but the teens don't find out about it until the party is already underway. They're throwing the party because school's been cancelled until further notice, Stu's parents are out of town, and his house is out in the countryside, making it a convenient place to hold a party away from prying adult eyes. The announcement of Himbry's slaying (and the subsequent discovery of his body on the football field) empties the house as many of the kids speed over to the school for a glimpse of the body before the cops take it down. Himbry's death *ends* the party, it doesn't start it.
Maybe this is all nit-picking, but the problem is that if Rockoff gets even these basic details of the films in question wrong, it would be easy for the casual reader, less familiar with the genre, to wonder how they could trust him to get anything else right. I don't think such criticism is fair, because Rockoff only makes a few of these errors, but I can't in good conscience pen a review without pointing out the obvious defects.
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Despite the errors made by its author, *Going to Pieces* is an enjoyable, easy-to-read excursion through the history of the Slasher genre. Rockoff takes plenty of detours along the way to highlight tons of overlooked and ignored fare, like 1980's *He Knows When You're Alone*, and in some cases takes pretty deep dives into their production to explain why they were forgotten or flopped on release -- the write-ups on *Terror Train*'s production alone is worth the cost of admission. He spends a lot of time discussion the *giallo* genre, something which is very important to a work like this considering how much the Slasher borrows from the Giallo, and vice-versa. There are even digressions into the "almost, but not quite" Slasher films, like *Motel Hell* and *Mother's Day*. He even devotes some pages to discussing remakes and reboots, picking out Gus van Sant's completely unnecessary scene-for-scene re-shoot of *Psycho* as the poster child for what *not* to do with a classic property should you wind up with the opportunity to remake it. The various *Texas Chain Saw* sequels also get raked across the meat hooks for their failure to understand what made the original so brutally effective.
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Since the book came out nearly twenty years ago, it would be great to see Rockoff release an updated version covering the territory where Slashers find themselves now: mostly consigned to their own particular brand of hell, with franchises like *Friday the 13th* and *Nightmare on Elm Street* both bombing their respective reboots; remakes of movies like *Maniac* and *The Last House of the Left* trying to recapture the horror of the originals; and directors like Rob Zombie and Alexandre Aja bringing their frenetic takes to the genre with reinterpretations of classics like *Halloween* and *The Hills Have Eyes*. And hey, if Kim Newman can update his own *Nightmare Movies* to the twenty-first century, I don't think it's too much to hope Rockoff will do the same. Maybe 2022 will see a 20th anniversary update that not only adds to the material, but corrects the mistakes and defects present in the original text. I can only hope that, like any good Slasher villain, *Gone to Pieces* isn't truly down for the count. After all, if Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees can re-assemble themselves for sequel after sequel, there's no reason Rockoff can't drag his manuscript out of the word processor for its triumphant return either.
Four shotgun-blasted craniums out of five.